1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to an electronic key system apparatus and method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system, apparatus and method in which an electronic key is transmitted to a wireless communication device for use in unlocking an electronic lock.
2. Description of Related Art
Known locking systems typically include a mechanical lock requiring a physical key that is inserted into the lock in order to open the lock for access to the contents of the locked object. These physical keys are inconvenient at best since they are prone to being misplaced and create security issues including possible duplication of the physical key and “picking” of the lock. If a physical key is lost, it may be very expensive to obtain a replacement key, and in many cases, replacement keys may not be obtainable. In such instances, the entire lock must be replaced.
In an effort to overcome the drawbacks of physical keys, electronic keycards, punch cards and smart cards have been devised to take the place of physical keys. With an electronic keycard, a magnetic strip on the keycard is encoded by a keycard supplier such that the keycard may be used to open a lock having a magnetic stripe reader. Punch cards make use of a pattern of holes in a card which are used with an optical reader or physical pins to identify a pattern used to open a lock. Smart cards include a built-in microprocessor and memory used for identification. When inserted into a reader, the smart card transfers data to and from a central computer. It is more secure than a magnetic stripe card and can be programmed to self-destruct if the wrong passcode is entered too many times.
Each of these keycards and punch cards reduce the cost of replacement of misplaced keys since keycards and punch cards are generally low cost items. In addition, since a substitute keycard or punch card may be encoded or punched in the same way as the original keycard, locks generally need not be replaced. Smart cards, while much more secure and are relatively easy to program, are expensive to reproduce and replace.
Thus, the problems of misplacement and security are not solved by the use of keycards and punch cards. Similarly, the problems of misplacement and replacement expense are not solved by the use of smart cards. Just as with physical keys, keycards, punch cards and smart cards may also be lost or misplaced. While the cost of replacement of keycards and punch cards may be smaller than the use of physical keys, there is still a cost involved that keycard and punch card suppliers would like to avoid. Further, the security problems of unauthorized keycard or punch card duplication are not solved by current keycard and punch card systems. Thus, it would be beneficial to have a system, apparatus and method for using an electronic key that overcomes the security and misplacement problems of known systems.